Encounter
by Brandon Payne
Summary: An imagined scenario involving the girls third and final Cultural Day festival.


Casey Silas is walking down the street of Tokyo. He is a very tall and wiry Caucasian with a very pale complexion, bright red hair, and bright gray eyes.

While walking, he cannot help but feel uneasy over the frequent stares that he gets. That is when he sees a crowd of people walking up to a three-story building. As he gets closer, he can see that there are children with them too. Mostly school children as they are wearing their uniforms, and they are in their teens too. He stops to look past them to see various signs up in the windows. This piques his curiosity and he wonders what it's all about. He listens intently to their conversations. His knowledge of the Japanese language can best be described as being halfway between lacking and fluent.

" . . . Cultural Day festival . . . "

" . . . Love these . . . "

" . . . Our class will do well . . ."

Cultural Day festival in a school? This might turn out to be interesting and he decides to investigate. This time the conversation around him changes.

" . . . whoa, check out that foreigner . . ."

" . . . what red hair he has . . ."

" . . . looks like he had the blood sucked out of him . . ."

" . . . maybe he's a bloodsucker . . ."

" . . . or the devil . . ."

He enters the school and walks throughout the hallways, checking out the various exhibits. Hair, eyes, and complexion aside, he is the only foreigner here. So naturally he ends up getting stared at. There is even a little girl who looks to be on the verge of crying as she hugs her mother tightly as he passes by.

Casey gradually works his way upward.

* * *

In Yukari's home room, cool is the theme for their third and final Cultural Day festival. But instead of a café, or haunted house, they go for something completely different. A photo shoot involving a person getting their picture taken while dressed in a gakuran, considered a cool outfit. In fact, everyone, including Yukari, are dressed in gakurans. The same type that Tomo, Kagura, and Sakaki had been wearing during their last Sports Day. Chiyo-chan is wearing a white band around her chest instead of a sports brassiere. Sakaki stands out the most in her own gakuran, of course, as the others are in awe of her.

"Gah, Sakaki, you're so cool!" Tomo exclaimed as she flinches back in fake terror. "I won't let you suck me in with your coolness!"

"The last sports festival really was a help," Yomi said. "When Kaorin heard about it, she made certain that we all had enough."

"So it was Kaorin who was actually able to help us get these gakurans?" Sakaki said.

"I wonder how Kimura allowed her to do that?" Kagura asked.

As if on cue, they hear someone weeping out in the hallways and check to see that it's Kaorin with tears streaming down her cheeks the whole time. She is dragging her feet toward Class Four while wearing a fur bikini with a cat tail, ears, and paws. She stops to look wearily at Sakaki, who in turn stares back with somewhat widened eyes and trembling slightly.

"Oh, Kaorin! That is the most beautiful outfit I have ever seen on you!" Kimura suddenly wailed as he now stands in the hallway waving his arms around. "Come on! Come on! Don't keep me waiting!" As he suddenly drops his arms and starts turning his head into abnormal positions, his neck making sickening cracking sounds.

Kaorin looks to be getting violently ill. Slowly, reluctantly, she continues shuffling toward Class Four, moaning and groaning all along the way, and enters her classroom.

"That is one brave girl," Yomi said respectfully.

When they return inside, one of the students places a box down on a table, hitting a stick balanced there. It flies across the room toward yet away from Sakaki, who then simply catches it with one hand as it passes in front of her without changing her position.

"So cool," they all intoned with the same looks that they had given Chiyo-chan last year when she fell over after doing her penguin aerobic exercises. Sakaki blushes with a sigh.

Later, Nyamo walks in and looks around. She stares at Sakaki with a near-glazed over expression.

"You're so cool," she droned. Sakaki blushes once again.

Yukari walks up to her with a haughty expression. "So what do you have to say for yourself, Nyamo," she gloated with her nose held high in the air, causing her headband to flip back, as she folds her arms. "There isn't a student here in this school who could beat Sakaki in coolness."

"Oh for God's sake, Yukari! Do you really believe that I'm that petty!?" Nyamo snapped.

That is when Yukari's expression instantly changes to curiosity then immediately to one of bewilderment, looking as if she is about to run away screaming. Nyamo turns around and gives a start as she makes a squeak of surprise.

For there stands a very tall red-haired hakujin with a very pale complexion and grey eyes. His hair is far redder than Chiyo-chan's, who is actually more of a brunette than an actual redhead.

"Gah, foreigner!" Tomo yelped as she flinches as if about to be struck.

"Calm down, idiot! He's not gonna eat you!" Yomi snapped.

"Geez, his hair is even redder than Chiyo-chan's," Kagura mused. "I didn't think anyone can have hair that red. Nor a complexion that light."

"I bet if he stripped naked in a snow storm, he might turn invisible," Osaka said absently.

"Gah, his eyes!" Tomo yelped once again as she covers her own. "It's like he can look through me! Like he can read my mind!"

"What mind?" Yomi sighed.

Casey walks into a classroom numbered three three, separated by a dash. It can only mean Level Three Class Three, as he sees three four just down the hallway before entering. He looks around at the students, who now stare at him with expressions of shock or wonderment. There are two apparently older women there. The pretty one with long hair reacts with fright from seeing him, causing the other one back onto him to turn and gasp with shock. She has short hair with long sidelocks that make her appear cute.

One of the students cries out, gaijin, and he looks to see a small shorthaired girl. The taller bustier one standing next to her shouts at her. She is also pretty and wears glasses and has dark brown hair. Another one has short very dark brown hair and looks somewhat tomboyish. A smaller pretty girl stands next to her with a vacant expression and her mouth hanging open. His attention is next divided between two girls. One of whom is even shorter and cute, probably prepubescent, with a reddish cast to her pigtailed hair. The other is very tall and statuesque with very long hair.

"Hello there," said the little girl in a cute high-pitched voice in English as she walks up to him. "Welcome to our classroom." And makes a small bow to him.

"Whoa, you're awfully small for a high school student," Casey mused in English as he kneels down at her.

"Actually, I'm twelve years old," Chiyo-chan chirped.

"Twelve!? But this is a high school!" Then there's also the fact that the little girl appears even younger than her age. The average twelve-year-old girl is taller and more developed.

"I arrived here back in Grade Ten when I was only ten years old. I skipped five grades because I'm a genius."

"A genius!? Then your intelligence must be pretty high since you speak such good English, little girl!"

"My name's Chiyo-chan."

"Chiyo-chan, what a cute name. Well then, my name's Casey."

"Pleased to meet you, Casey-san."

"What are you going to do after you graduate from high school?"

"I'm going to go to America and enroll in a college to continue my education."

"Wow! That's incredible! Which one?"

Chiyo-chan thinks about that for a moment. "I'm not certain yet."

"Well good luck then," Casey said as he ruffles her hair before getting up and turning to Nyamo and Yukari.

"How good is your English, pretty lady?" He said to Yukari in his native tongue as he walks up to her.

Yukari laughs. "Well aren't you the charmer," she giggled in English. "I'm their home room teacher, and English teacher too. But my friend here is a dumb Phys. Ed. teacher so she doesn't know any."

"I . . . see."

"I may not know exactly what you said, Yukari," Nyamo glared at her, "but I do know it was about me and I know it wasn't very flattering."

"But you still look cute with those long sidelocks," Casey said to her.

Nyamo blushes and chuckles as she closes her eyes and strokes her face with a finger. "Ah . . . eh . . . how sweet of you."

Casey next looks to the other five girls.

"What about you lovely girls?" he asked as he walks over to them. "How good is your English?"

"My English is somewhat good," Sakaki answered with a thick accent.

"Mine is good too," Yomi also answered with a thick accent.

Tomo, Osaka, and Kagura merely stare blankly at him.

"I take it these three don't know English?" Casey asked Yomi and Sakaki in his native tongue.

"No, they don't," Yomi sighed.

"What!? What did he say!?" Tomo asked her eagerly.

"He said that you don't know English," Yomi grumbled.

"Hey, I'll have you know that I have an excellent memory for English!" Tomo clamored in outrage.

"Fine, then say something to him in English," Yomi challenged.

"All right then, here I go." Tomo cleared her throat as she turns to Casey. "Hell oh, whore you day? I find tanks." Her accent is so thick that she sounds as if she is talking with her mouth full.

"Keep working at it," Casey sighed in Japanese.

"So how long have you known Japanese?" Kagura asked him.

"Around three months."

"What was your name again?" Yomi asked.

"Casey. Casey Silas. Or in the manner that you Japanese present your names, Silas Casey."

Tomo smirks then chuckles. "What a weird name. What's even weirder is how you put your given names before your family names. Are you saying that you're more important than your families?"

"Then what's your name?" Casey asked her dryly.

"Tomo. Takino Tomo."

"Tomo, eh? Well drop the O and you have Tom, short for Thomas. A Western male name."

Kagura and Yomi chuckle.

"He's got you there, Tomo," Kagura mused.

"And what about the rest of you?" Casey asked them.

"I'm Yomi. This is Kagura. That's Osaka, and she's Sakaki."

Casey then looks at Sakaki.

"Wow, you are an absolutely gorgeous girl," he mused as he looks her over.

Sakaki blushes and gasps as she smiles embarrassingly.

"Do you have a boyfriend?" He then asked her.

"No, she doesn't," Tomo piped up.

"What!?" Casey continued in mock surprise as he looks back to Sakaki, then places his hand upon her shoulder. "I figured that a beautiful girl like you must have one. Or at least be dating frequently."

Sakaki groans and moans as she begins shivering with embarrassment while her face turns ever redder and her unwilling grin grows ever larger. She lowers her head and buries her face into her hands.

"When you get yourself a man, he's going to be the luckiest man in the world," Casey continued to croon as he now has his arm across her shoulders. "He'll be in heaven as he climbs into bed with you every night. You might end up being the reason he'll want to go to bed early. So he can thoroughly enjoy you. You seem to be the gentle yet passionate type who hides her passion well. But when it's called forth, it must be like a raging bonfire. So both you and your man will have an intense afterglow and be utterly spent."

Sakaki had since let her arms drop to her sides as she now looks upward while wobbling as if she is about to faint with her arms swaying like cloth in a breeze. Her eyes are now swirls as her face is blood red and radiating heat. She tries to speak, but all she can do is groan and grunt softly. It's as if her larynx has become paralyzed. Finally, she bends over and buries her face into her hands once again and trembles violently as she turns white and shrinks. She feels as if she wants to melt into the floor, down through the school and into the foundation. All the way down to the center of the Earth and hide.

"Whoa, I've never seen Sakaki look that humbled before!" Kagura hollered.

"Of course, it wouldn't be fair of me to lavish praise only upon you for your beauty," Casey said closely into Sakaki's ear, yet loudly enough for the others to hear before turning to the rest.

"You there, Yomi," he said. "You have that sexy, scholarly look about you."

Yomi grins and blushes and sighs. "Ah . . . r-really . . . th-that's nice."

"Ooh, he must like tubby girls too," Tomo teased at her.

"Shut it!" Yomi grated as she whips around and punches Tomo while grimacing with a vein popping out on her forehead.

Casey stares at the outburst for a moment. He cannot figure out as to whether they are truly friends or enemies from the way they carried on.

"And you, Kagura," he finally continued while pointing her out. "You got that sexy tomboy look about you."

"Ah . . . um, o-okay," Kagura grinned as she too blushes as well.

"You are pretty," Casey pointed to Osaka, who keeps staring back up at him with a vacant expression.

"Pretty dense," Tomo said under her breath.

"And you," Casey said, now pointing at Tomo. But he got stuck for a description of her. While Tomo might be considered pretty or cute, her obnoxious personality has a tendency to spoil her looks. "You seem . . . nice."

"That's it!?" Tomo exclaimed with outrage. "I seem nice!? I think I should be insulted, you . . . you pasty, dead-eyed, blood-headed freak!"

"Wow, that's original," Casey mused sarcastically.

"Tomo, don't be an ass!" Yomi shouted raucously at her. "Maybe if you weren't such an idiot, then Casey-san might have a higher opinion of you!"

"Thank you, Yomi," Casey said. He then decides to change the subject. "So what is your display all about?"

"Oh, well for five hundred yen, you get to have your picture taken while wearing one of these gakurans," Chiyo-chan explained with a tug of her own jacket.

"A gakuran, eh?" Casey mused. "Okay then, I'll have one taken."

"There's a dressing room right there," Chiyo-chan points to it. "I'm pretty sure we have a gakuran in your size."

Sakaki searches through the largest sizes and finds one, then hands it to him. Casey takes it from her as he looks her in the eye and winks, then enters the change booth. Sakaki blushes intently once again as she grins and tries to hide her face once more.

"Wow, isn't he a tease," Yukari grinned. "I think that blush must have burned itself into your cheeks, Sakaki."

"Humph, he didn't think that I was all that attractive," Tomo fumed.

"That's because of your less-than-desirable personality," Yomi sighed.

"I'll have you know that the guys flock to me," Tomo refuted grandly with a tone of outrage.

"Only in your dreams," Kagura said snidely.

"At least I'm not a muscle-bound she-male," Tomo sneered.

"Casey-san called me a sexy tomboy," Kagura snapped back as she points to herself. "That's a hell of a lot better than being seemingly nice!"

"Nice and masculine for you, you mean," Tomo taunted.

"That's it! You wanna fight, dumbass!?" Kagura growled and grabs hold of Tomo's cheeks then starts pulling, making Tomo follow suit.

"Double chop!" Yomi yelled raucously while chopping Tomo on her crown with both hands. "Tomo, you are a dumbass! Now shut the hell up!"

"You don't suppose Casey Silas is really a fox in disguise," Osaka gasped with an intent look. "You know the stories about the foxes. They can take human form. But their form is not perfect and if you see their tail or foxy reflection or shadow, they will change back."

"Why, because he has red hair?" Nyamo said dryly. "Chiyo-chan has a touch of red in her hair. Are you going to start thinking that she's a fox too?"

"That's just a myth, Osaka," Yomi said with a stressed out tone. "Besides, their human forms are said to be either that of a beautiful young woman or an old man, mostly a woman though."

"Maybe they got smart," Osaka countered.

"Osaka, no!" Yomi snapped slowly. "Just no, okay! He's just a foreigner who happens to be born with red hair and a very pale complexion. He's not the only one you know."

The door opens and everyone looks at Casey as he comes out. They blink and their expressions grow more awed. There stands Casey, wearing a gakuran, which fits him like a glove. The words, Wolven Fox, are in Kanji lettering on his headband. He seems to look even more impressive than Sakaki. He looks . . . exotic.

"Well?" He asked as he does a casual three sixty. "How do I look?"

"So cool," the girls and their teachers drone with looks of awe.

"So who'll be taking my picture?"

The girls blink in response over that. They had not figured that part out just yet.

"How about you, Sakaki?" Casey asked her.

Sakaki looks a little bewildered as she gasps softly then blushes. But she picks up the camera. Casey gets into a casual pose and she points it at him then takes his picture. Since it's a digital camera, his picture comes up instantly.

"Wow, I look good in this picture," he said as he stares at it.

"That's an understatement," Yukari whispered to the others with a blush.

"After you pay us, it will be sent to your e-mail account," Chiyo-chan said.

Casey pays the five-hundred yen price and it gets sent. He accesses his e-mail account and finds it there.

"Since it's done, I guess I'll change back and be going," he said.

"Do you really have to go?" Yomi said in a disappointed tone.

"I only came in here for a while to check things out. But before I go, I do want to congratulate you ladies for being so lovely."

The girls and their teachers blush and chuckle.

"Especially you, Sakaki," Casey said teasingly as he walks up to her. She blushes and gasps intently once again as he places his arm around her shoulders. "You are without a doubt a very beautiful girl who is going to make some future man very happy. Perhaps you'll have his babies, and they'll be very beautiful babies who'll grow into very attractive adults."

Sakaki once again goes into that same state involving her eyes becoming swirls. Casey returns into the change booth and later returns dressed in his other clothes once again.

"Before you go, Casey-san," Osaka said to him. "Are you American?"

"Yes. I'm from the state of Maine, from its state capital, Bangor."

"Then inside your houses, you walk around with your shoes still on, right?"

"Right."

_Oh, no! Not this again!_ Yukari flinched.

"Well . . . what if on your way home . . . you stepped in dog crap," Osaka continued in a hushed tone.

Yukari gags as if about to puke.

"And then you tracked it home without knowing it," Osaka continued with a look and tone of bewilderment. "And then all of your other family members stepped in dog crap too and tracked it all over the inside of your house."

Yukari groans as she clutches her face with only the whites of her eyes showing, looking as if she wanted to pull her face off. The others have looks of disgust over Osaka's explanation.

But Casey blinks absently as he listens to all of this.

"We're always keen on wiping our feet before entering houses," he finally answered. "Although if our shoes were filthy, we would remove them beforehand. But only long enough so that we could get them cleaned off properly before putting them back on. Does that answer your question?"

"I guess so," Osaka said absently.

"But wouldn't it be better to just keep your shoes off in the first place?" Sakaki asked him. Having now recovered from her initial shock of embarrassment.

"I suppose it would, but it's just something we don't think of doing. We only remove our shoes if we are getting ready for bed."

"Well I wouldn't want to go walking around in someone else's home with my shoes on, it's unsanitary," Tomo said arrogantly. "You Americans are so unclean."

"Tomo!" Yomi roared as she slaps her across the back of the head.

"Ah, she's just jealous that I didn't praise her so highly," Casey refuted with a wave.

"That still doesn't excuse her," Yomi said as she glowers at Tomo.

"No, I suppose not. But I'll leave that up to you. Anyway, I'll be going now."

He suddenly places his hand on the other side of Sakaki's cheek to steady her head to plant a quick kiss on her other. The others gape and Sakaki looks as if wanting to explode from embarrassment.

"Goodbye," Casey finally said as he walks away. "Maybe we'll meet again someday."

And he leaves.

"Wow, wasn't he the charmer," Yukari giggled.

"He certainly took a liking to you, Sakaki-san," Chiyo-chan said.

But all Sakaki can do is respond with a gasp and groan as she tries to shrug off her embarrassment.

"Humph, good riddance, I say," Tomo said snidely as she folds her arms.

Yomi makes a long and loud groaning sigh. "If I told you once," she began slowly and irritably, "I told you a thousand times: if you weren't such an ass, then he might have complimented you better."

Tomo merely remains silent.

The rest of the day goes on without incident as people come in and have their pictures taken wearing a gakuran. Casey Silas doesn't show up again as he had been seen leaving the school grounds. In the evening, the event begins winding down and the stalls start closing up.

"This will be a final Cultural Day festival for our class to remember," Chiyo-chan said in a delighted tone as they are now wearing their school uniforms.

"Yeah, with that foreigner, Casey Silas, showing up and flirting with us," Yomi smirked.

"Especially with Sakaki," Kagura laughed, whom she then turns to and puts an arm around her shoulder. "You should've seen your face when he was saying all those sweet words to you!"

Sakaki merely shudders as she buries her face into her hands.

That is when Kaorin comes in, now dressed in her school uniform and bearing an expression of one who had just went through a torture session.

"You look like hell," Yomi said to her.

"I feel as if I had been there," Kaorin rasped. "My last Cultural Day festival is going to be remembered as the worst one of my life." And she starts sobbing.

"Did you hear about the foreigner that was here?" Kagura said.

"Yes, I did."

They tell Kaorin all about Casey Silas, even showing the picture they had taken of him wearing a gakuran.

"He certainly looks impressive in that," Kaorin said neutrally.

"You should have been here when he was hitting on Sakaki!" Kagura laughed. "She turned so red that I thought she was gonna bleed out of her face!"

"Of course, he also flirted with the rest of us," Yukari said. "Except with Chiyo-chan of course."

"He certainly didn't think too highly of me," Tomo said glumly. "Foreigners, humph."

"Get over it!" Yomi snapped.

"Oh my, Sakaki-san!" Kaorin gasped as she attempts to comfort her crush. "Are you all right!? He didn't grope you, did he?"

"He did kiss her though," Tomo said.

Kaorin feels a stab of jealously. _How dare he force himself upon Sakaki-san!_ she thought

"I think she really enjoyed it when he had his arm around her and started telling her how beautiful she was," Tomo suddenly joked. This being a turn around for her now. "Especially when he said that some guy she might have will be the happiest man in the world, and looking forward to going to bed with her every night. Or that how her babies will be beautiful."

Sakaki goes into another eye-swirling state once again.

"Easy, Sakaki-san, easy," Kaorin cooed as she clasps her shoulders. "He's gone now." Then her tone turns bitter. "Ooh, these foreign men. They think they can just come into our country and try to seduce us women, just because they find us exotic?"

"It's their high sex drive," Tomo said flatly and slyly close to Kaorin's face with a grimace and her eyes as dots while making casual shooing motions with one hand. "Why else would their equipment be larger?" As she turns away with her eyes closed, nose in the air, hand held up and open, and in a haughty tone.

"What equipment are you talking about, Tomo-chan?" Chiyo-chan asked innocently.

"You'll understand when you're older," Osaka answered instead as she blushes, along with the rest of them as well.

* * *

Casey Silas is back in his hotel room, preparing to leave tomorrow. He had a wonderful time here in Japan. That Cultural Festival at that high school was a way to wind it down. The older girls in those gakurans were nice, especially the one named, Sakaki. He wonders if he might cross paths with any of them ever again. Perhaps with that cute little genius girl, Chiyo-chan, since she is going to an American college. Then just as quickly dismisses such an encounter as it's a big world out there.

Yet it's also a small one at the same time.

* * *

**Note:**

**Osaka's claims about foxes are the kitsune, which literally translates to fox.**


End file.
